An End (or Prelude?) to Further Litigation in the Reparations Movement

For decades there have been eff orts to obtain reparations for the descendants of those held in slavery in the United States. At bottom, the argument for reparations is premised on notions of fundamental fairness: descendants of slaves should be compensated for work their ancestors performed under compulsion. Advocates of reparations note that there have been payments to other groups for past wrongs, such as compensation paid to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, arguing that it is only fitting that similar measures be taken to compensate the descendants of slaves....